'It's very sad' - Sam Neill's TV show Alcatraz gets axed

A hyped drama show about Alcatraz Prison featuring New Zealand actor Sam Neill has been cancelled after just one season.

No official reason was given by American network Fox for the decision. Reviews for the show were good, but ratings dived over its first season.

"Yes Alcatraz is cancelled. Very sad today. We'd only just begun," said Neill on Twitter.

The show, about a group of notorious prisoners who had escaped from the island prison 50 years ago but had started committing crimes again, starred Neill as FBI agent Emerson Hauser investigating the crimes.

His co-stars included Sarah Jones and Lost's Jorge Garcia.

The show was produced by Star Trek director JJ Abrams, and has a 63 per cent approval rating on review aggregate site Metacritic.

"For now, Alcatraz is a sinister bag of sinister pleasures," said Miami Herald's Glenn Garvin after the show's first episode.

Fans had mixed feelings about its cancellation.

"My constant need for answers led me to getting fairly frustrated with this show so it's cancellation comes as no surprise. Plus at no point did Sam Neill fight a dinosaur. Trick missed there," said one posting online.

"A show with amazing potential, sadly let down by extremely poor characterization. It's incessant need to keep everything a mystery meant we couldn't get to know the charters at all," said another.